The Great Galveston Disaster / Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane and Terrible Rush of Waters; Immense Destruction of Dwellings, Business Houses, Churches, and Loss of Thousands of Human Lives; Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony; Frantic Efforts to Escape a Horrible Fate; Separation of Loved Ones, etc., etc.; Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of Death; Terrible Sufferings of the Survivors; Vandals Plundering Bodies of the Dead; Wonderful Exhibitions of Popular Sympathy; Millions of Dollars Sent for the Relief of the Stricken Sufferers

by Paul Lester

CLOTHING AND PROVISIONS.

“The Chicago corps of surgeons and nurses, under Dr. L. D. Johnson, buried thirty-two bodies between the hours of 1 A. M. and 8 A. M. to-day in Alvin, Hitchcock and Seabrook, and gave provisions, clothing and medicine to 300. Its members also attended to twenty-six persons suffering from broken bones, cuts and other wounds requiring surgical work, and nursed more than fifty.

“This is considered the greatest piece of relief work done since the storm. The bodies buried had been lying in the fields a week, and were decomposed and spreading disease germs. An extra car of provisions is being shipped to that district.

“Insanity is developing among the sufferers at a terrible rate. It is estimated by the medical authorities that there are 500 deranged men and women who should be in asylums, and the number is increasing. These poor creatures form the most pitiable side of Galveston’s horror. They stand in groups and cry hysterically. They are harmless, for their troubles have left them without strength to do harm.

“Mentally unbalanced by the suddenness and horror of their losses, men and women meet on the streets and compare their losses and then laugh the laugh of insanity as a newcomer joins the group and tells possibly of a loss greater than that of the others. Their laughter is something to chill the blood in the veins of the strongest men. They are maddened with sorrow, and do not realize their losses as they will when reason returns, if it ever returns.

“Some of them are absolute raving maniacs. One man, Charles Thompson, a gardener, as soon as he was out of personal danger that awful night, commenced rescuing women and children, and saved seventy people. He then lost his mind. Two policemen were detailed to capture him, but he heard them approaching and leaped from the third-story window of an adjoining building and escaped.